Chapter 14 Falling down hard,rising up quick

"Wait a second...are you for real?" Sookie asked me the next day as she and I sat out on the back porch of Bill's house with abandoned cups of coffee on the railing as she stared at me with a look of pure disbelief on her face. "Like for real for real?"

"Yes Sookie, for the millionth time it's true. I can read vampire thoughts now." I replied hesitantly even though I had repeated that phrase a few times already today but it was still scary to tell her considering the first two reactions I had gotten the night before. I had woken up this morning with an intense need to return to my old town and I called Sookie to see if we could get together and when she had said yes, I jumped in the car and drove right here. I had intended to just spend time with her while I gradually worked up the nerve to tell her what happened. But the moment she and I saw each other, it all came tumbling out and I wanted to kick myself. This was not how it was suppose to be said and I don't know how but Sookie managed to contain her shock until we were in the house and in the kitchen making coffee and then she asked me all about it. So I explained in detail to how the night had gone. From the sneaking out, the vampire attack, Louie's involvement, the blood healing me and then giving me the ability to hear Eric's thoughts, and then how I took to the woods to find Louie so he could explain it to me. I left nothing out and by the time I was done, I had been worried she was on the verge of being afraid of me just like Eric and Godric were. But all she asked was for me to confirm it and when I did, she just sat there with curious eyes and I was feeling flickers of nervousness. "Um...say something..please..."

"I think that while it is completely shocking, unbelievably crazy, and downright impossible...I honestly don't think it is that big of a deal." Sookie shocked me with her response and I nearly fell off the porch swing when she simply shrugged her shoulders as if we were simply talking about the weather or a movie and not my new found ability to read the minds of vampires. She smiled at me in amusement, shaking her head. " What? You thought I would have a freak out and look at you like you were a freak?"

"Uh...yes actually. That's exactly what I thought you would react with." I answered honestly, still kind of taken aback that she seemed to be taking this well. If anything, she would have been the one more likely to have the worse freak out rather then Eric and Godric. But yet she was taking it in stride and I wasn't really sure what to make of it. I looked at her with a frown. "You honestly don't care about this?"

"No. Not at all." Sookie leaned forward to grab her coffee mug before sitting back with a smile. "Should I be making a bigger deal about it?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm relieved that you are so calm about this because I think its a little scary, but when you're told your cousin can do the impossible, I at least expect something more animated." I told her, running my fingers through the ends of my loose hair as I saw the images of Eric and Godric's reactions to my new. It was that response that made me cautious to tell another person about this. But Sookie wasn't just another person, she was my cousin and I had always told her everything. So this shouldn't have been different. "You don't think this makes me a freak?"

"Not at all, it's just another power. Nothing to be ashamed of." She waved her hand before taking a sip of coffee and then said. "Actually I think it's neat and sort of useful."

"How so?" I questioned, wondering how this could be of use. "And even if it was useful, I don't want to know what's going on in vampires' heads."

"Well no one else has to know except for those closest to you, just keep it in this circle and it will fine." Sookie tossed her hair back behind her shoulder with ease. "And as for being useful...you can use it to read Bill's mind whenever I think he's lying to me. It will be great!"

"Not funny, I do not want to read your husband's thoughts. That would be way too weird." I grimaced at the thought of getting a peak inside Bill's head. It was one thing with Eric or even Godric but Bill? He was married to my cousin and if I went digging in his head then I would probably hear something I did not want to hear and I could be scarred for life. But the fact that she was clearly making a joke out of this made me feel calmer then I felt in days. "I'm just thrilled that you took this well. I couldn't handle another bad reaction."

"So you never did tell me how Eric and Godric took it. You somehow managed to avoid describing that part." She made a point of saying with her eyebrows raised at me. "So spill it."

"When I told the both of them, neither believed it and when I proved it to them, they turned around and left the house. And when I came back last night, I just walked passed them to my room. And we haven't spoken since." I explained, feeling my heart ache from the thought of not having the support of those two. "I'm scared that this will change things and I don't it to."

"Nothing's going to change. They are just in shock and in time they will get over it." She assured me, her free hand reaching out to squeeze one of mine. "They're vampires, their attention spans go a million miles an hour. I'm sure that by tonight it will all be ok."

"I hope that is true, but I doubt it will be."

A few hours later

"I hope this night ends the way Sookie thinks it will." I muttered to myself as I walked up the front steps of Eric's house, reminding myself that it was also my house as well as the sun was almost finished setting in the sky as I let myself in. It had been past 6 by the time I started driving out of Bon Temps and I knew I would just be making it back in time for Eric to wake up when I walked in. And sure enough, I had barely hung up my jacket and turned when Eric appeared, surprising me to the point that I screamed. "Jesus Christ..."

"No, Eric Northman." He said back with a leveled stare as he stepped out of the doorway leading down to the basement and kicked it shut with a thud before setting his eyes on me intently. "Where were..."

"I was in Bon Temps with Sookie, but I left you a note and a voice mail, so you can't yell at me." I replied, crossing my arms and directed my gaze towards the floor. I didn't want to look at him, to see the way he was looking at me differently then he use to. And I knew he would be, after last night I wasn't sure if things had a chance of being what they use to be I kept my eyes trained downward as I walked across the tiled floor towards the staircase, saying softly. "I'm just going to go..."

"Oh no you don't. You're not going anywhere." Eric appeared in front of me, his feet coming into my line of vision before I could reach the stairs and forced me to come to a stop and look at him. I couldn't read the expression on his face and I didn't dare try to read his mind so I just waited for him to speak. "We need to talk about last night."

"I don't think we do." I shook my head, there was no way I was revisiting those moments when it felt like I was completely alone in the world and if he thought we were going to discuss it then he was dead wrong. I went to move around him, but he also moved to the side and kept me from going anywhere. I growled in frustration and moved to the right but he was blocking my path that way too and finally I stopped moving and grabbed his arm out of anger. "Eric, I don't want to..."

"I can't believe things have changed again...i don't like change...there's been too much of it this year."

"It's been so damn hard since she came back...i keep trying but it feel like such a struggle to get back on track...things keep getting in the way.."

"And I thought feeding on all those girls who looked like her while she was dead was hard enough to deal with...but this is on another level..."

"Oh my god." I gasped, letting go of his arm immediately and stepping back in horror over what I had unwillingly just heard. One look up at Eric's face said that he too was aware that I had listened in and he was staring at me with this mixture of fury and guilt in his eyes. I moved away so there was at least a few feet between us before I had to ask the obvious just to make sure I had heard it right. "Is it true? Wha...what I just heard, is it true?"

"Yea. It is." Eric didn't even put up a fight like he normally would have done in this situation and I think it was because he knew he couldn't lie his way out of it. I had heard it for myself straight from his mind and there was nothing he could say or do to make me forget it had been said. So we both knew he couldn't deny this and maybe it was better this way. Or maybe not, because after seeing him nod in confirmation, I felt my heart thud painfully and I knew he could sense it because he actually started moving towards me. "Allison, don't take this..."

"How many? How many girls did you feed on?" I demanded but by the way my voice had gone quiet, it sounded far more weak then I would have liked. But I could care less what I sounded like. I just wanted answers. I always wanted answers. I looked up at his face and asked again. "How many were there? 10? 15?"

Eric didn't say anything in response and just stood there with his arms hanging down at his side and I thought that maybe he hadn't heard me. But he was a vampire, he could hear a pin drop in the backward, so he did hear me. Then why wasn't he saying anything? Unless it was because I had said the wrong amount and just thinking about it made me eyes grow wide in panic.

"There were more? More then 15?" I managed to get out even thought it was extremely hard for me at the moment to even look at him. I knew deep down that I couldn't exactly be upset with him right now over this since it had happened when we weren't technically together. But that went out the window in my desperation to know exactly what he had done. " Exactly how many girls did you bring here?"

"You don't want to know..." Eric looked away in shame, a look that was rarely ever seen on his face. The Eric I knew did not ever feel ashamed of his actions and yet here he was looking exactly that. It made me fearful of the answer that I knew he would give. And that was pretty much the case when he met my eyes again and muttered. "45...I brought home 45 girls who looked like you."

"I...uh...that's..." I felt stupid right then and there, struggling to form even the tiniest of responses to this revelation. I didn't know how to respond. I wanted to yell and cry and hit him for doing this. But my mind couldn't decide which would be more fitting, so my heart took over and soon I knew what reaction I would give as tears filled up my eyes. I started moving around him towards the stairs. "I cannot believe you would do that."

"I was grieving you Allison...and I didn't know what to do to snap me out of it." Eric cut in, turning around to follow me with his eyes but he didn't do anything more to stop me except by his voice. "You were gone and I was hurting. I had to do something..."

"Trust me, you did something alright." I felt my voice waver and I quickly tried to frown to ward off the tears that were seriously on the verge of falling. But the attempt failed as I hit the first step and grabbed the banister. "Just...don't bother me for a while."

And then I turned and ran as fast as I could away from him, getting to the second floor landing right before the tears finally started falling.

2 hours later

I found myself still in the same place I had been 120 minutes after I had fled from Eric downstairs and I had no intention of leaving this spot. I found the little amount of comfort I could possibly find on the balcony to my bedroom and remained there in the dark night with the only light coming from the stars and the half moon hanging out in the dark distance. I hadn't heard any noise from Eric since I left him and I was glad for it, after what I had just found out, I couldn't stay in the same vicinity as him. It was just too suffocating and I had to get out of there or else I would end up doing something stupid like trying to hit him. So I was the one who ran away this time and I wasn't going to be making an appearance any time soon. I don't I had even sat down for more then a few minutes before I was up and standing at the railing again. I just couldn't remaining still and even standing here like I was for the past 30 minutes, I was still rocking back and forth from foot to foot.

"Should be try this talking thing again?" Eric's voice spoke up from behind me out of nowhere, his feet never alerting me to his arrival but I didn't jump like I'm sure he had expected me to. I knew he would eventually come to break the silence between us first and it was only a matter time before that happened and now it looked like that moment had come. I didn't even bother turning around when he spoke again. "It's been a few hours, let's talk."

"I don't want to talk to you. I'm mad at you." I snapped quietly, not wanting to give a louder voice to the anger I was feeling right now and instead just dropped my hands to the stone railing and tapped it furiously with my fingertips. "I still can't believe you were with that many girls. How could you do that?"

"I was alone and depressed. And I had to act out." He said, this time his feet made noise as he moved over the balcony towards me, his body coming to a stop near mine as he turned around and leaned back against it with his arms crossed tightly. "I lost you and I didn't know you were coming back. So I was just doing something to console myself."

"And that makes it ok?" I exclaimed, turning my head to the side to look up at his face that was barely visible in the dark night. "Just because you were mourning, it makes it ok for you to go out and do whatever you wanted with almost 50 women?"

"If you hadn't died, then I never would have gone out to seek these women for comfort. So you may not like it but I did nothing wrong. It only would have been wrong if you were still alive when I did it. But you weren't." Eric's voice had risen to a near shout but it fell just short as if he were hesitant to yell at me as I was at him. His eyes shot towards me rapidly, almost glaring into slits as he said. "You know me better then that. You know I never would have been with another woman if you were still at my side. You know that."

We both went silent after that for a few minutes and just allowed the quietness of the night fall over us as we each fumed in our own little haze of emotions. Our bonds were open to the fullest degree so I was feeling everything he was feeling and the same went for him. I wasn't surprised that we both were spitting out the same kind of emotions since we had been so in tune to each other before that sometimes we even felt the same way about things. He was feeling the anger and guilt just as strongly as I was and there was a huge difficulty in deciding who was the one feeling it stronger. I knew why I was mad, because of the obvious betrayal of him feeding on those other girls. Eric had never fed on anyone else except for me, saying that I was the best he would ever have. So to hear he had gone to other girls and especially ones who looked like me, it hurt that much more. And I was guilty because I had promised him long ago that I wouldn't leave him, I wasn't going to die but that promise had been null and void that night in the graveyard. It wasn't my fault but in Eric's eyes I knew he had wanted me to fight harder then I had. And hearing myself think that made every bad feeling I had go flying out of me just in time for me to look up at Eric's face.

"I don't want to keep fighting with you." I said softly, looking into those blue eyes that had once been so hypnotizing to me. "But I don't know how to not feel upset by this."

"You were dead Allison...that kills me to say, but you were dead. And I was just trying to deal with losing you in the only way I knew how." Eric's voice was calmer then I thought was possible considering just minutes ago we had been almost yelling at each other. But he was obviously trying to defend himself. "You know as well as I do that I wouldn't have hurt you like that. But you were gone and that killed me. I didn't think that what I was doing would come back to haunt me."

"You're right, I wish you weren't right but you are and even I can admit that now. I was dead and you had every right to move on and do whatever you wanted. You have no tie to me and I know if I had been alive those 2 months then you wouldn't have done that." I couldn't look at him as I said this because I hated admitting that I was wrong and I knew I was. I wasn't around and Eric was in pain because I was gone and he was perfectly allowed to go out and mourn my death in any way he wanted. I couldn't give him crap for that just because it hurt me to know he had been with other girls. But it did still sting at me a little. "I'm sorry but I can't help it. I'm still upset."

"You weren't meant to find out about that..." Eric began to say but I had to cut him as I had something more important to get out.

"But I did find out and in a way, it turned out to be a good thing..." I sighed, turning around and leaned against the railing just like he was and tucked my hair back behind me. "With everything that has happened since my resurrection and with the recent developments from last night, it got me thinking..."

"That is never a good thing." Eric instantly cut me off as it was obvious he did not like it where this was going. But I still went on, needing to get this out before I lost my nerve. It was something I had been wondering since I came back.

"We haven't been close since my return and I understand that it will take time to get back to normal but I've been wondering if it's something more then that. Like is the reason why we haven't re bonded like we use be because you don't want to be with me?" I felt that same teary feeling coming over me that had been present downstairs when I found out about the other girls and just like then, the tears spilled out no matter how hard I tried to stop them. "Do you still want me? Do you still love me?"

"Are you out of your mind?" Eric appeared in front of me, his hands coming up to cup my face and pulled me up so I was looking at him straight on as he held my gaze. "Of course I want you. And yes I still love you. I never stopped. Why would you ever question that?"

"You ran away from me Eric. You made a promise to me long ago to never do that again. And last night, you looked at me like I was a threat to you and that hurt me when I had to watch you run away." I pushed his hands away from me and moved to the side while trying to wipe away my tears. "Every time you do that, it confuses me. So I don't know what you want."

"I want you..." Eric's hands were on my shoulders and he easily turned me around to face him again and this time he kept his grip tight so I couldn't get away. "I want you now and forever."

"I want to believe that..."

"Then let me prove it to you. Give me some time to get use to this new power of yours, because I know you know how fucked up it is..." He said this so pointedly that I couldn't help but laugh through my tears. "Just give me the time for it to sink in and I know I can make things right. Because my love for you never changed and it can get back to normal."

"I know you never wanted me to know what's going on in your head and I never wanted this power. But I have it and if anyone has the right to be scared then it's me. It happened to me and I need you to help me through this." This was probably the first time I had actually asked him for help since I had come back to life and it felt weird to say despite the fact that I had no problem doing it before my death. But things were so different now and it was going to take more work this time around but I wasn't about to give up. I fought too damn for this relationship and I wasn't letting it go without a fight. "I can't do this alone."

"I promise, you won't have to." Eric shook his head as his large hands encased my tiny wrists. He sounded so certain as he said this. "I will meet the true death before I run away from you again."

"I mean it Eric, never again. You've broken that promise before and I'm willing to let it slide this time because of everything that's happened these last few weeks. But it's different now, because I want to move on and be happy with you now that I got a second chance at life." I was being more vulnerable then I had in a while and I certainly hadn't gotten this intense with Eric since I got back, but I knew I would have to come to this point if we had any shot at being together and having a future. I looked up at him and tried to keep myself together. "If we're going to be together, I have to be certain you won't run every time something happens. Because I can't take that anymore. Too many people have disappeared from my life and you can't be one of them."

"I swear on my life, I will not betray you like that again." His thumb ran across my cheek to stop a tear in its tracks. "You have my word."

"Alright, I believe you." I managed to nod before I looked up at him and I couldn't help but make a promise to him in return. "And I swear I will try my hardest not to read your mind unless you want me to."

"Now that is a very good promise to make to someone like me." Eric's face broke into a smirk that I could see when the moon moved out from behind a stormy looking cloud and lit up his face. "I have a feeling this will be the start of something good, perhaps it will be better then what we had before."

"I think so too." I agreed, feeling my hair blow over my face from the wind which I was glad of since it hid that I was still crying.

"Don't cry." Eric's fingers were brushing at my cheeks again, clearing my face of any more tears that dared to fall. His face was tight as it always when I cried in front of him. He still couldn't take it. And even he couldn't deny that. "I've seen you cry too much and for once you deserve to be happy for a while."

"Stay with me and I will be happy." I told him, reaching out to wrap my arms around his midsection so I could hold on to him. "Don't go anywhere."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

45 minutes later

"I was hunting down the witches."

"What?" Allison looked up at him like she hadn't quite heard right but he knew she ad judging by the way her eyes had grown wide in the matter of just a few seconds. They had been standing there in silence since their last talk and things were calm for the moment which they both appreciated. But then Eric began mulling over some long forgotten things in his head that had been brought to the surface by this night and before he knew it he was blurting it out with no restraint. And Allison was looking at him like he was crazy. "Are you serious?"

"Yea, I am. 100%" He nodded, leaning back against the railing by her side while he kept his eyes trailed on her. "But I guess just randomly saying it makes it hard to believe."

"In a way yes, but considering our history with that coven I know there has to be some truth to it." She nodded, running her fingers through her hair, her face briefly showing a flash of remembrance of the witches and it was not a good expression. "But since you brought it up, go on. Say what you were going to say because I know that wasn't just it."

"I had been mourning you for weeks on end, I wasn't talking to people and I was lashing out violently at the house and at Godric and Pam. And after I fed on those girls, it came to me that I never avenged your death like I had promised. And I felt like shit, so after some convincing, Godric helped me get in touch with Isabel to see if the rest of the witches had returned to Dallas. But they were in Mississippi and that's where we headed to." Eric recounted that night as best as he could to her, but he was momentarily overcome with a flash of anger at himself for not going back and finishing the job. Those witches were still out there, roaming around and probably killing at random. And if they ever got wind that Allison had come back then, that red headed bitch Anna could return to try and get at Allison once again. And he couldn't have it. He would have to kill her before she laid a hand on Allison. "The night of your resurrection, we had just left the state and were on a rooftop after the rain had let up when we got the call from Pam. And when she told us about you, obviously all thoughts of revenge went out the window and we had to come home immediately."

"I have to say...I'm impressed." Allison looked up at him with a smile and with their bond flowing wide open, he could feel just how pleased she was at what he had just said. And that was not what he was expecting. He thought any mention of the witches would send her into a tailspin. But a second later, he got an explanation. " You were holding on to the promise you made to me. I can't believe you were going to do it."

"Don't sound so surprised..." Eric found himself smirking, standing up straight to his full height and sent a look down at her. "I can pull through on a promise once in a while."

Allie laughed in response and then for the first time that night and what was really in a very long time, she actually moved towards him instead of him coming at her. She stepped up and with only the slightest of hesitation, she wrapped her arms around his cold body and pressed herself against him, laying her cheek on his chest while they stood there in silence. Eric, while thrilled to have her back in his arms, made sure to keep up his mental blocks up so she wouldn't unwillingly hear something else she wasn't suppose to and there was a lot of stuff in his past that he did not want her to see or hear. But it wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be and even found himself relaxing there with her as the wind picked up and blew against them. The silence was welcoming after so much talk but it wasn't meant to last all that long as her quiet voice broke it.

"I want to be there..." She whispered, sounding so quiet and soft that no human would have been able to pick up on it but he did and he felt his arms tense around her as she tilted her head back to look him in the eye. "When you go after the rest of the witches and hunt them down, I want to be there. I want to help you kill them."

"No. I'm not letting you put yourself in their path again. I made that mistake once and I will never make it again. So no." Eric was shocked that she would even say that she wanted to go back into battle, but his shock was quickly overridden by his dismissal of the idea. There was no way in hell that he would let her fight these witches again and risk losing her permanently this time. It was miracle she had gotten a second chance and he was not going to tempt fate by allowing her to go head to head with the last of the witches. He looked down at her and shook his head. "Sorry, it's not going to happen."

"It's ok. We don't have to decide anything right now..." Allison said with a steady tone in her voice but he could tell through their bond that she was disappointed that he shot her down. She smiled gently and said with a determined little look on her face. "But that coven took my life and now I want to finish them off. Painfully."

"Wow, that sounds more like something I would say." Eric pointed out with a smirk at his surprise to head his sweet Faerie talking like someone unlike herself. "You've changed a lot."

"This year changed all of us." Allie replied quietly, moving forward into his arms again as they both fell silent.

Later that night

"Allison? I think we need to talk...oh sorry." Godric came skidding to a stop as he caught sight of the young Fae lying in Eric's arms on a lounge chair out in the balcony, both in their own world that was now broken when he had his sudden appearance. He had come here tonight to make amends with her for his atrocious behavior and now he wanted to back track and leave the house. This was a moment the two of them were having and he felt like he was intruding by coming here. "Um, I'm just going to go and..."

"It's ok Godric. You can stay." Allison called after him, getting to her feet despite resistance from his progeny and skipped over to him into the room with a lightness in her face that he had not seen since before her death. She didn't reach out for him like she normally would have but she did smile at him and that put him slightly more at ease. "I was actually hoping to see you."

"I'm surprised to hear you say that considering what happened just last night." Godric grimaced at the way he had recoiled from her, acting like she was this dangerous creature when in actuality she was just a scared little girl who needed him and he wasn't there. And for that, he would never quite forgive himself. Sure, she could do something no other supernatural being had been able to do in the history of the vampire and he should have taken into account how scary it was for her instead of focusing on himself and his own reaction. She was the one that would have to deal with this power and what it would bring to her life and yet he had been selfish and took off like a weakling. He had to make amends. "Allison, I have to express my sincere apologies..."

"Godric...you don't have to." She cut in, holding up her hand to keep him from making a sound as she looked over her shoulder to where Eric was walking up behind her. "I understand why you reacted that way and it's ok."

"No, it's not. It's not ever ok for me to treat you like that and I so incredibly sorry for behaving like anything less then the friend you deserve. You have been nothing but a friend to me this whole time and I took that friendship for granted last night. And I wouldn't blame you for not forgiving me right away. I haven't been very steadfast in my behavior this year. And it makes me more like Eric every day..."

"Hey! That's not cool." Eric exclaimed, pretending to look offended but they both knew it was just for show and sure enough his face fell into a smirk within a few seconds.

"Seriously Godric, its ok." She told him, gaining his attention again only to find her smiling at him like she use to. "After talking to Eric tonight, I'm just willing to let it all go. Let's just forget about it."

"Wait a second." His progeny demanded with his eyebrows raised practically into his hairline as he came up to their spot and looked between them. "You can just let things slide with him and yet you pick a fight with me and put me through the ringer. What the hell?"

"Oh shut up Eric." Allie rolled her eyes, the smile never breaking from her face as she looked up at the former viking and even Godric had to grin. Even after everything that happened, the love that these two shared had not lessened in its intensity one little bit. It was evident they felt just as strongly for one another as they ever had and it was nice to see. Allison reached out for Eric's hand, twining her fingers with his before holding out her other hand to Godric which he gladly took with no hesitation. "Now let's just try and get on with our lives."

"That sounds good to me." Eric's face was filled with a masked expression that neither of them could decipher,but with the way he was grinning down at Allison hinted that what was going on in his head was not something Godric wanted to know. "Life will be good from now on."

"You're right Eric, it will be good. No matter what pops up for any of us from here on out, we stick together from now on." Godric told the two of them confidently, squeezing Allison's hand gently in his. "We are a family as odd as it is. And we will always have each others backs forever."

The words had barely left his mouth before Godric found himself being shoved back into the past at breakneck speed as he was drowned in a memory he had long since forgotten about...

"Godric? Why have you asked us here?" Louie questioned of his friend of almost a thousand years, turning to look at the shorter vampire as he made his way across the darkened field to where Louie stood at the base of a wall of rock where they would remain hidden from any passerby. "It sounded urgent."

"Not so much urgent as it just is necessary." Godric replied with a pointed look, reaching the hidden spot and looking around with a frown on his face. "Where has Helen run off to? She was suppose to be here with you?"

"I'm right here Godric." The feminine voice spoke up from behind him and he turned to see the Faerie with wavy blonde hair and bright green eyes stepping through the grass carefully with a mound of fur wrapped around her to protect her body from the cold. "I had to wait until the village was quiet before I could escape and I doubled back to make certain I was not being followed."

"You risk your life just to hold company with a pair of vampires." Godric made a point of saying, watching as the beautiful Faerie went to Louie's side and took his arm when he held it out to her. Godric tried to ignore the stab of jealous that ran through him at seeing them joined together, but it soon disappeared as he set his eyes on the both of them. "You both know that our situation is getting dire, that the villagers who have not known of our existence are now becoming aware of our presence. And it won't be long until an uprising happens..."

"Godric, do not fear what may or may not happen. You don't know what will occur in a month's time or even a night from now." Helen said, reaching out with her free hand to brush it against his arm, setting off a fire in his heart that had yet to be quenched despite her preference for his friend. "Don't fear the unknown, just be here with us right now and it will all be ok. As long as we all have each other then that is all any of us will ever need."

"I'm afraid she is right..." Louie quickly allowed a smile to come over his face despite the look Helen shot at him for his statement. "Even with the Faerie village allowing us access to their inner most workings, it will not be long until they rebel against us and push us out again. But Helen alone stands up against it and has pledged her loyalty to us. And as long as we all remain united, then our time together will never be cut short."

"Perhaps you are right on that front." Godric nodded in agreement, knowing the peace between the Fae and vampires wouldn't last long despite the village allowing him and Louie to walk amongst them. But Helen had long ago since promised that had there ever been a need to make a stand in the occurrence of an uprising, then she would remain with them completely. A promise that Godric took to heart and made sure they all knew the importance of. He took Helen's hand and then reached out for Louie's outstretched hand, joining them all in a circle as he made a final statement. "The peace may fail and things may be destroyed but not us. We are a family and we will protect each other forever."

"Forever." Helen and Louie echoed his sentiments with a squeeze of his hands...

"Godric? Are you alright?" Allison's hand shook him as he suddenly came out of his flashback to find his child who was not his former best friend and the Faerie that was not Helen staring back at him in concern. He dropped Allison's hand that he had been holding the whole time and stepped back with a shake of his head, trying to clear the memory from his mind. Allison moved toward him cautiously. "You spaced out for a moment there."

"I don't think I have ever seen you get lost in your own head as you did just now." Eric said with a frown, studying him with curious eyes as he must have known it was a long ago memory that he did not know about. "Are you ok master?"

"Yes. Absolutely." Godric sent them both one of his sincere smiles, knowing they needed it to assure themselves that he was indeed as ok as his words suggested. But even he knew that unleashing this one little memory was just the first in a whole ocean full of things in his life that he did not want to remember. Bad things. Dark things. Painful things. But he wasn't going to worry them with that and just simply echoed his own words. "I am perfectly fine."